The Light Before the Night
by hardrocker21
Summary: It's adoption time at the zoo again and this year there is a pleasent surprise for Dave and Marlene. But is everything so good these days for everyone? My first one-shot.


**Well guys this is my first one shot and it will pave the way to my next big story so please enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Penguins of Madagascar**

It was that time of year again. Where people could come in and adopt whatever animals they wished. Unfortunatly for most of the people who wanted to adopt, the Vesuivius family adopted a great majority of the animals every year. And this year was no exception. The Vesuvius' were already spending their money and adopting every animal in sight. Hardly anyone else got a chance to adopt. At this point, all you could do to sucessfully adopt is donate more than the Vesuvius' did.

A couple of days after the adoption frenzy, the family dropped by the zoo to observe the animals they had adopted. And so that the boys can commit their usual mayhem. As soon as the boys arrived at the zoo, they went straight to Alice's office to discuss a special deal. What that could be was anyones guess.

The penguins watched the boys from their flow with their paranoia running wild.

"Kowalski,analysis," Skipper ordered his scientist.

Kowalski did a couple of quick calculations on his notepad and let out a terrible sigh.

"Well Skipper for one thing, the Vesuvius family has adopted a majority of the animals again this year. And chances are that those two are probably going to try that whole taking a couple of animals home with them thing again," Kowalski said with fear resonating in his voice as he finished.

Skipper grimaced at the memory of what those boys had done to him and ringtail. He shook his head and shivered a little bit.

"Semper alerta men. We will not be taken off guard again," Skipper instructed.

"But Skippa, what if it isn't us who are being taken? What if they take someone else? What if they take Dave or Marlene?" Private said growing more worried.

Skipper froze and realized the probability of what Private had just said. He had already told Marlene about his true feelings for her and he wasn't about to let her get tortured by those two little maniacs.

"It's not going to happen Private. I won't let it," Skipper said diligently.

Kowalski looked over at the otter enclosure and noticed something. He whipped out some binoculars and took a look at the plaque that was sitting in front of the habitat.

Kowalski smiled and said, "Oh I don't think that is going to be a problem Skipper."

**(Later)**

After a while, the boys came running out of Alice's office with evil looks of glee on their faces.

"Well now, which animals should we take home with us," said boy one. **( I have to call them something)**

"Maybe those water rats. I've always wondered what they would look like after being put into a sauna," said boy two.

The two boys snickered and started over towards the otter enclosure. They looked inside and they could see the two otters. The light brown female was just shivering at the sight of them while the dark brown male was standing up on his hind legs in front of her.

"Aww look, they're scared already," boy one said.

"I can't wait to take them home," boy two stated.

The two boys just stared evily and began chuckling like the maniacs they were.

"Hold on boys, I just checked the list here. The otters are not on your list," Alice said and checked her clipboard.

The boys looked at Alice in surprise as their smiles fell.

"What? But I thought mom and dad donated five-thousand dollars for them," boy two complained.

Alice looked again and said, "Well I'm afraid that someone else donated more than that."

"What? WHO!" boy one yelled.

Alice looked again and said, "By a man named Perkins. Yeah, Royce Perkins. He donated six-thousand dollars in platnium for them. Sorry boys."

"WHAT! Lawyer team activate," boy one yelled for his lawyers.

The guys came climbing over the zoo walls and all stopped in front of Alice with thei papers.

"You can't be serious. A lawsuit, because someone else adopted an animal you wanted. People will sue for anything these days," Alice stated as she read one of the papers.

"Is there a problem here?" came another mans voice.

Everyone turned their heads to see a middle aged man with a thin mustache and thinning gray hairline walking towards them. In his right hand, he held a cane that he needed to walk.

Alice sighed and said, "Hello Mr. Perkins. Can you please explain to these boys about you and these otters."

"Yeah and how you stole them from us," boy two said.

Roy started chuckling and said, "Stole? I'm sorry boys, but I adopted them fair and square. Next time donate even more."

"We'll sue you," said both boys at once.

Roy started laughing out loud at this point. He laughed so hard that tears began to stream down from his eyes. This resulted in a short coughing fit that lasted only a short moment.

"Sorry everyone, but that is just the dumbest thing ever. If you boys try to sue me, I will counter sue for doing something completely legal. Your adoption wasn't finalized yet and I gave more than your family did at the very last minute," Roy explained as carefully as he could.

The boys groaned and sent a hate glare to Roy.

"Come on man. Let's go see if we can do something with those monkies," boy one said and boy two walked away together with their lawyer team following.

Roy just merely chuckled and Alice turned to him.

"Thanks for telling off those little brats. I can't stand them," Alice said to him.

Roy coughed a little bit and said, "No problem. You know I really have to thank for actually allowing me to have them. I'm sure that my son and daughter would have liked them."

"Why? What happened to them?" Alice asked faking concern.

"They disappeared nearly a year ago. They loved otters, so I adopted these two," Roy said and patted the metal plaque.

The plaque itself had platinum letters on it that spelled out the name 'Royce Perkins'.

Roy smiled as Alice rolled her eyes.

"Listen buddy, you can love these otters as much as you want, but I'm going back to my office," Alice said and walked away towards the main zoo building.

As soon as she was gone, Roy reached into his pocket and pulled out his earpiece. He placed it in his ear and turned it on. Dave and Marlene looked up at Roy who was now smiling down at them.

"Well son, it looks like I saved you and your friend's hides on this one," Roy chuckled and then let out another cough.

Dave climbed onto the top of the wall and said, "I guess you did this time captain."

Roy smiled and patted Dave's head.

"It's great seeing you dad," Dave said to his father.

Roy sat down on a bench in front of the habitat and said, "And you as well son."

At this point, Marlene climbed up as well and the penguins slid over to the group as well.

Skipper gave a small salute to Roy and said, "That was a good move soldier. You saved your boy and Marlene from sure torture."

"Yeah with those kids, you never know what can go down," Marlene added.

Roy saluted Skipper back and said, "Yeah I remember when I was a boy. I used to torture animals for fun myself. But I've grown up a lot since then. Now I protect them."

Dave looked back at the platinum letters on the plaque and he couldn't help but feel like something was wrong with them.

"Hey dad one question. Where did you get all that platnium from anyway?" Dave asked.

Roy just waved Dave's comment off and said, "Don't you worry about that son. Just know that I made a couple of neccesary sacrafices. Ones that I do not regret."

Roy got up from the bench and continued gripping his cane. Dave saw it and realized that it was a bit odd. His dad? Walking around with a cane? What was wrong?

"Hey dad? Why are you using a cane? I've never seen you with one before," Dave said as his dad stood up.

Roy looked at the cane and said, "Oh this? I got arthritis in my right leg now. I need this thing to walk now."

Dave sighed and said, "Oh. That sucks."

Kowalski held up a flipper and said, "Not to worry Dave. It's just a sure sign of aging. One that hopefully won't impede your abilities too much."

Roy chuckled a little more and said, "Hopefully not. Now if everyone will excuse me, I have places to go. It was apleasure seeing you all again. But I must be on my way."

Skipper nodded and said, "Understandable. Just be careful out there soldier."

"Be sure to drop by soon," Marlene said and waved goodbye.

Roy waved back and said, "I will. See you all again sooin."

"Bye dad," Dave called to his roy as he walked away.

As soon as Roy was outside the gate to thye zoo, everyone stopped waving and began to return to their habitats.

"What a swell guy, doing that for Dave and Marlene," Private stated as the penguins waddled back to their habitat.

"Yeah!" Rico grunted.

From nearby, the penguins could hear the sound of the Vesuvius twins screaming and theit screams sounded like it was coming from the chimp habitat. Knowing the chimps, Skipper had a gut feeling about what was going on.

Skipper laughed and said, "Sounds like the boys are getting theirs. Who knew that poo flinging would actually be beneficial."

"Booyah!" cheered Rico.

**(Roy)**

Roy made it back to his car and climbed in. He looked in his mirror and at this point began, he coughing again. This time a bright crimson color came up with the phlegm. Roy stared down at the blood and grimaced. He looked at his dashboard and grabbed a slip of paper that was lying on it. The note read 'Doctor's report: URGENT'.

Roy just started his car and said, "I'll tell him when the time is right. I'm sorry son."

Roy put the car in drive and drove away from the zoo as quickly as he could.

**Well that's my first one shot, and it's pretty depressing at the end isn't it. Some key things that occur here will be brought back in my next story. I'll even explain where Roy got the platnium from. As for the title... it'll make sense with my next story as well.**

**Remember to read and review please.**


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